The Arabic adaptation of the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-2

Autism is an increasingly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder (Matson & Kozlowski, 2011) that manifests as impaired ability to socially interact and communicate, with apparent stereotypic behavior and limited interests (American psychiatric association, 2000). Currently, the majority of the standardised tools are developed in English speaking countries; therefore, the aim of the current study was to translate the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-2 from English into Arabic using the classical translation procedures described in the literature. The GARS-2 was translated into Arabic, back-translated into English, and then revised with the necessary corrections made. A sample of 27 children (11 formed the autism group and 16 the typically developed group) of bilingual parents (speaking Arabic and English) participated in this study. The comparison was made against the original GARS-2 and each participant was interviewed twice, with an interval of a week or more between the two interviews. The psychometric properties of the translated instrument were tested. Measurement of alpha coefficient confirmed the Arabic GARS' internal consistency